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American Lit: Lit Circles: Between the World and Me

Lit Circles 2016-17

Review

“A work that’s both titanic and timely . . . the latest essential reading in America’s social canon.” - Entertainment Weekly

Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Setting: Howard University

Title

Summary

"Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward."